


What's in a Name

by somerandomwritingstuff



Series: What's in a Name? [2]
Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Don't worry, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, One Shot, Zane-centric, also i realized i never mentioned zane's hair is significantly longer than in the show, but if i end up posting the sequels and/or prequels it might come up, but it was a long time ago, cause he hides behind his hair a lot, dr. julien does not exist sorry, everyone ignored zane in the techno season because of nya and noone ever talks about it but i am mad, i have not watched beyond the tournament season, it is mentioned once, nothing graphic, same here, so there might be inaccuracies i don't know about, sorry - Freeform, sorry bout that, stole the title from a line in romeo & juliet from shakespeare sorry, zane is not a robot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 10:31:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18497119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somerandomwritingstuff/pseuds/somerandomwritingstuff
Summary: When they asked him, he just told them to call him Zane. It was the first name he came up with, and he didn't think he'd be with them this long. But it wasn't like he wanted to tell them. Why should he? And why should it ever come up anyways?Well, because Borg Ind. decided to introduce a patent-friendly program for children to explore. And of course Jay just had to have the school excursion to Borg Ind.





	What's in a Name

**Author's Note:**

> "What's in a name? That which we call a rose  
> By any other name would smell as sweet."

 

When they asked him, he just told them to call him Zane. It was the first name he came up with, and he didn't think he'd be with them this long. But it wasn't like he wanted to tell them. Why should he? And why should it ever come up anyways?

Well, because Borg Ind. decided to introduce a patent-friendly program for children to explore. And of course Jay just had to have the school excursion to Borg Ind.

  
  
  


“Welcome at Borg Ind. Please take a tablet, we can assure you there are enough tablets for everyone. My name is P.I.X.A.L. and I am your tour guide for today.”

He can surely and openly admit that he was excited for the tour. Jay and him had been going on about it for weeks by now.

Soon enough, everyone had a Borg Ind. tablet.

“We would like to remind you that you will have to hand the tablets back at the end of the tour, so please do not break them. However, you will need to keep your tablet with you at all times for security reasons and the tour will include interaction with the tablet. Since everyone has a tablet, we can now register you as the temporary user. Please enter your legal name.”

And that was it. His heart dropped into his stomach and he nearly had to force back tears forming in his eyes. “Oh.” He couldn't even look at his tablet that now displayed two fields asking for his legal first and surname. “I guess I'll wait in the bus then,” he tried not to sound like he was speaking with a lump in his throat.

“Why, what's wrong?” Jay looked up from his tablet to his best friend.

He went through his hair and sighed. “I can't register.”

“Why? Is your tablet broken, we can fix that or you can have a new one.” Jay walked to him and tried to look at his tablet.

“No it's not that, it's just” he went through his hair again and sighed. “I don't have a legal name.”

“Sorry, you gotta speak up a bit.”

“I don't have a legal name,” he hissed.

“What?” Jay said way too loud. More people in the room looked at them, which made him wince; he really didn't like that much attention.

“Is there a problem?” P.I.X.A.L. came to them. Unfortunately for him, so did his other friends.

“It's nothing, I'll just go and wait in the bus.” He quickly said, gave his tablet to P.I.X.A.L., and turned to leave.

“Wait, you've been excited all month, why are you leaving now?” Of course Cole couldn't understand. He had been showing his excitement quite liberally. He won't make that mistake again.

“What did you mean you don't have a legal name, everyone has a name,” Jay exclaimed.

He winced again as he turned to them. “Well I don't, so I'll just,” he pointed behind him at the door.

“Why don't you have a name?” Jay still couldn't grasp it, then again, people usually do have names.

“I just don't, okay? I'll see you later.” He quickly walked to the door.

“Wait, can't we like, register you as Zane?”

“Unless it is his legal name, he cannot register as such. The system checks every name and matches it to a legal existing person.”

“Can't we just leave it blank then?”

“The software does not accept blank fields in forms.”

“Just leave it, Jay, it's fine.” He pushed his hair out of his face. He already stood at the door, but he stopped when Jay attempted to have him stay. For naught, of course, that was his luck for you. “See you.”

“I'll tell you everything!”

He turned around a last time to give him a wavery smile before he left completely.

  
  


“How comes you don't have a name?”

Of course. He'd been expecting this question at first, but between Borg Ind. being taken over by an evil force and evil robots attacking, shutting them down, and Jay and Cole fighting over Nya, he'd hoped they would just forget about it. Apparently, Jay didn't. Or he just wanted a distraction from the Nya-situation and that's why he walked into the kitchen and remembered as he looked at him the first time in what felt like ages. He was making dinner, after all they had to eat properly, no matter how dire the situation.

He considered walking out and leaving the dinner to Jay.

“Like I said, I just don't.”

“Then how did your parents call you?”

Jay didn't mean to, he was just confused about it, that's all. That didn't stop him from just putting down the knife he was using to cut the cucumbers and walking out, not minding the stove or the pot with the boiling water or the pan with the meat that was surely going to go black soon.

“Wait, where are you going?” Jay followed him.

He turned around “Look, I don't wanna talk about it, okay? Can you finish dinner? Thanks.” before resuming leaving.

Jay wanted to run after him, but if he didn't want to talk, he should probably keep dinner and the house from burning.

 

He wasn't at dinner. Not that anyone really noticed, of course, they were too preoccupied with the Nya-situation. They always were these days, sometimes they couldn't even concentrate on fighting and saving the world, why would anyone realize he wasn't there. Kai was mad at Cole and Jay because Nya was his sister, Cole and Jay were fighting about Nya, Nya was trying to decide between them, and Lloyd was with Sensei Garmadon. It's been weeks since he's last had a conversation and the first he did have he ran away from.

What was he doing.

  
  


The name problem didn't come up for a long time after that. In fact, the next time it came up was at the tournament. Well after Cole found him. Well after they saved him. Still before they got to know how he even survived.

And the only reason it came up was because a really old friend of his was at the tournament as well. It must've been the first time he smiled since the moment before P.I.X.A.L. said “Please enter your legal name.” but that didn't make it any less wide.

“Dashie!” He nearly cried in happiness, he covered his mouth as he ran to his old friend, who couldn't look any happier.

“Oh my God, what are you doing here? Since when are you here?” Dashie released him from the bone-crushing hug and set him back on the ground. “Oh, wait, first things first, how am i gonna call you?”

And there it was again. The name problem. He usually just went through the names like identities or like other people went through underwear. He didn't keep the same name for long. Well, usually, with the ninja, he'd forced himself into keeping his name.

“Pick any that you want,” he smiled at him so widely and pushed his hair out if his face. “Oh, but they're probably still gonna call me Zane.”

“Zane it is then, though i really would've liked calling you Aurora,” Dashie winked at him.

He laughed. “We already had that one, Dashie.”

  


After everything going down with the tournament and Sensei Garmadon being done, as well as all this time having passed since that day he had to put in a legal name he didn't have, he didn't think it would come up again. But Dashie, who was now living with them because he “couldn't let his best friend live with a bunch if people he didn't know without worrying and having to murder someone”, just had to ask him what name he preferred that day while Jay came into the kitchen.

“Why do you do that?”

“Do what?” Dashie had been informed by him that they knew he didn't have a name.

“Why do you ask him that? Isn't your name Zane?” Jay then directed at him.

“Well, since i do not have a name, no it's not. I just told you to call me that, a long time ago.”

“I know it's not your legal name, but, like, it's your unofficial name, why change it?”

Dashie answered this one. “Oh well, we kind of came up with that back when he still didn't have any name-”

“Except-”

“ _That_ is not your name, it never was and it never will be, besides, it's quite literally illegal to name a child that. Anyway, where was I? Right, back when we didn't have a name to call him,” he glared at him, daring him to object again. “we went through all kinds of names to see which one fits, but like, at some point he asked us to change it all the time? And yeah, he just, didn't want to get used to being called the same name because he feared he'd get used to having a name and would forget he doesn't have one.”

“And that is exactly what happened, isn't it? I forgot I didn't have a name and it came back at me eventually,” he snapped.

“ _Why_ don't you have a name, Zane?” Jay was dying to know by now, it's been three years and he still knew as much as when he first admitted it.

“I told you, I just, never got one.”

“How did your parents call you then? And isn't it like, mandatory to give a child a name?”

“Well it's not like he didn't have names to call me by” he looked down and went through his long hair.

Dashie, whom Jay nearly forgot about, however, seemed furious. “Well _I_ certainly know a few names to call _him_ by.”

“Dashie, please, don't,” he whispered too quietly for the others to hear.

“You know, like abuser, alcoholic, _rapist_ -”

“Well I know a name to call you by, _murderer,_ ” he snapped at him.

“Waitwaitwaitwaitwait, what's going on?”

“Oh, I murdered his father because he beat and raped him nearly to death.”

“DASHIE!”

“Wait, _what_?”Jay looked at his friend, who wouldn't meet his eye and hugged himself. “I-is that true?”

He didn't have any other choice but to nod.

“But, but he's your _father_ , he's supposed to protect you and not, not…”

“He didn't give me a legal name, but he sure had a lot of names for me.” That were definitely tears running down his face.

“You don't have to.” Dashie put his arms lightly around him and put his head against his chest with his own head on top of his long white hair. “That okay?”

He nodded.

“It's okay, he can never do anything to you again,” Dashie reassured him. “We made sure of that, remember? Shaunee and I.”

He nodded again.

Jay was close to tears, too. “Why would anyone-?”

“Don't,” he whispered. “Just don't.”

Jay nodded slowly.

He wiped his face with his left arm. “Hey, can you make breakfast, please? I'm a bit tired.”

“S-sure.”

He felt Dashie leading him out of the room more than he realized walking out.

  


Quite a while later, Cole remembered the name thing during dinner.

“Hey, Zane,” he looked up. “You never did tell us why you didn't have an actual name.”

He felt sick. Couldn't he ever escape this topic? “Cole, you shouldn't have cooked tonight, I think I'm gonna-” He hurried out of the room to the bathroom.

“Oh!” Dashie let his fork with which he ate Cole’s soup fall and ran after his best friend, but he still lingered at the door out of sight long enough to hear Jay say “He just didn't get one. You sure that soup thingy is edible? Don't wanna have to throw up, too.”

  
  
  
  
  
  


“Hey, since you're stuck at that name, can I call you Rara again?”

**Author's Note:**

> if you are unsure who i mean by “he” it's usually “Zane”  
> that will become clear in the story  
> if you want me to, i can italicise the “he”s that mean “Zane” for better understanding


End file.
